Gay Jewish–New Yorker and libertarian‐leaning classic liberal with some center‐right conservative views who is publishing on ▴ gay and ursine topics ▴ the public domain and freely licensed creative works ▴ Near Eastern, Central Asian, North African and Caucasian topics ▴ linguistics, particularly as relevant to the above populations ▴ Humanist, naturalist or Bright topics ▴ history, understood to include my own personal experiences in and occasionally out of my beloved native city.

30 December 2009

I learned from Wikipedia that Indian composer and singer C. Aswath (ಸಿ. ಅಶ್ವತ್ಥ) died yesterday, and I had never even heard of him. I don’t understand the Kannada language, but this song composed by Upendra Kumar from the 1983 movie musical Kamana Billu (ಕಾಮನ ಬಿಲ್ಲು) is obviously about life in the big city.

Is atheism a choice? … I’m inclined to say no. While it’s a conscious effort that leads us to seek out the truth through study and reflection, we can’t decide ahead of time what the evidence will say. Evaluating evidence is in the domain of our subconscious. … In my conception of belief—confidence that something is true—it’s very difficult to argue that my atheism is a choice. … ¶ Theists often seem quite capable of talking themselves into belief without evidence. I find this to be delusional. But it explains why religious believers often think that our atheism is a choice: if they put evidence aside to believe, they assume we can, too. …[T]his is begging the question—in essence, I’m simply asserting that I’m incapable of accepting something as true without evidence.

▴ Hear the endangered Cypriot Maronite variety of Arabic in this two-part documentary in Greek (with English subtitles). Look for the link to part two when part one is over, and please excuse the religious content. —21 October (gskordis on YouTube, Facebook|FriendFeed|FriendFeed, Jaiku|FriendFeed) {Already embedded in a prior article.}

19 December 2009

▴ My pictures of the vigil, Hudson River Park Pier 45, and “optional mass,” the Church of St. Luke in the Fields, in memory of Jorge Steven López Mercado, Greenwich Village, 22 November 2009. —28 November (Facebook)

▴ …had an innocuous mooning photograph (with a bare posterior) removed by Facebook. As he has commonly seen much more revealing and erotic pictures on Facebook, he suspects some “friend” reported it. —2 December (Facebook)

28 November 2009

Not surprisingly, I was running late for the vigil here in New York City for Jorge López who was the victim of a ghastly murder in Puerto Rico. His story greatly moved me, but I was nevertheless victim of my own difficulty managing time. While hurrying down Christopher Street toward Pier 45, I encountered a new friend I had met at the most recent Fur Ball who was walking the opposite direction. I didn’t think I was all that late, but his walking companion gave me the impression the whole event might have been over, and my friend informed he himself left because he was bored.

Little of the vigil had elapsed when I arrived. I had missed speeches by some people I know, but I listened to the remaining speakers, many of whom were able to move the crowd to sadness or anger and others who read woodenly from scraps of paper or their mobile devices. I felt a little guilty that I spent so much time socializing with friends I had not seen in a while, but times like these can call for us to reaffirm our bonds of friendship. I felt a lump in my throat when my friend Karlo had difficulty maintaining composure describing how a gay youth activist and volunteer had become a pile of body parts.

One of the things that moved me most was seeing the vigil participants leave together and move en masse down Christopher Street while still holding their lighted candles. The mass afterward at the Church of Saint Luke in the Fields had been clearly marked as “optional” in all the literature, and maybe it would have been best had I not attended. It had its good moments, particularly hearing Dionne McClain‐Freeney, former head of the Center’s Youth Enrichment Services program, performing on the piano, but overall was far too religious for this atheist. I did however encounter some more friends and had some particularly good photo opportunities.

After saying my tearful goodbyes to everyone who seemed to want to rush home, I went to View Bar to join the crowd watching the American Music Awards, but there were only about ten customers present.

22 November 2009

Photo: Antropoturista (tomke_lask).View from a window of a synagogue in Quba (Qıbə), Azərbaycan.────────

An article (Tom Colls, “The death of language?,” BBC News, 19 October 2009) made me think about the eventual deaths of various Jewish languages. Hebrew as an everyday spoken language is often rightly cited as an example of a triumph in the revival of dying languages, but often overlooked are the Diaspora languages that Hebrew rather intentionally displaced, many of which are now in decline or even seriously endangered. In a comment on the article, M.D. noted

The flip side of the revival of Hebrew…is the probably imminent demise of Yiddish and Ladino (Judaeo‐Spanish), two previously vibrant Jewish languages…. The movement to transform Hebrew…into the national language of Israel had as much to do with 19th‐century Zionist romanticism as anything else. Yiddish and Ladino were considered ghetto languages by Zionist intellectuals, and so not only not worthy of preservation, but deserving of oblivion. [T]he speaking of languages other than Hebrew (but especially Yiddish) was actively discouraged.

My own two ethnic Diaspora languages, Yiddish (ייִדיש) and Juhuri (ז׳אוּהאוּראִ) are both listed in UNESCO’s Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger as “definitely endangered.” Yiddish is spoken by more than three million people including many children, but is apparently in decline, and the overwhelming majority of Ashkenazim worldwide have no fluency in it. Juhuri has fewer than 100,000 speakers, and while I have no concrete information, I suspect it is gravely endangered outside of insular populations in the Caucasus. Mountain Jewish children and young adults across the globe are probably more likely to speak Russian, Hebrew, Azeri or English than Juhuri. It might even qualify as “severely endangered” were it not considered a dialect of Tati rather than a language unto itself.

17 November 2009

▴ …likes this video a little too much. Thanks, Shemuʼel (and Elaine, Peter etc.). —26 October (C.O’C. on Facebook; Facebook)▴ …is compiling a list of people who removed him as Facebook friend and has so far reached 28 (not counting two whom he’d never met, four who later requested to be friends again, and the many who rejected his request in the first place). Many were vital community contacts he had met once or twice; others were friends whom he loved and who he thought loved him. He acknowledges, however, he takes Facebook too seriously. —27 October (Facebook) (Update: As I continue to remember and notice people, there are now forty-one on the list.)✡ “Just call me ‘Dreydl’ (דרײדל),” said the active partner in the relationship, “because I’m a top!” —27 October (Facebook)▴ …still loves Mr. Goldstone and wants to give him an egg roll, but not everybody feels that way. —29 October (MuzzleWatch, Facebook|FriendFeed, Jaiku|FriendFeed)▴ …loves a gruesome Halloween recipe. —30 October (not martha, Facebook|FriendFeed)▴ …also enjoys viewing (as opposed to taking) aerial photography. —30 October (instantShift, Facebook|FriendFeed)▴ …learned what is orange and sounds like a parrot. —31 October (Jokes.com, Facebook|FriendFeed)▴ …is finally dressing to go out for Halloween. Thank goodness for that extra hour we’ll get. —31 October (Facebook, Jaiku|FriendFeed)

13 November 2009

Had I read at all about the coming of “Park(ing) Day” to my neighborhood on 18 September, I probably dismissed it as not being relevant or interesting. More than likely I confused it with the unfortunately similarly named “It’s My Park Day” which I avoided because of its emphasis on families and children. If I anticipate crowds of screaming, running children, I scream and run the opposite direction. If I expect throngs of babies in strollers, I stroll someplace else.

Photo: Haci Richard.

That day turned out to be a busy one for me anyway. After staying up late at Elevate meeting guys on whom I developed crushes, I probably slept right through Park(ing) Day before marking the Jewish new year by running out to LGBT Night at Asia Society’s Leo Bar. The front door of my apartment building was also barricaded at the time due to construction that necessitated my coming and going via the service entrance. Due to all these poor excuses, I did not attend.

Photo: Hrag Vartanian.

Despite my lack of attendance, a small, temporary park called “Stone Soup Park” was nevertheless assembled across parking spaces in front of our Aqua Clara Laundromat, the location chosen because of the participation of the Laundromat Project who “bring art programs to where our neighbors already are: the local laundromat” and thereby “aim to raise the quality of life in New York City for people whose incomes do not guarantee broad access to mainstream arts and cultural facilities.”

Photo: Hrag Vartanian.

That art program was The Photo Booth Without Borders by local artist Carlos Martínez (site, micro-’blog, Facebook) who was sponsored by the Laundromat Project’s Create Change Public Artist Residency Program to develop artwork specific to the neighborhood, and whose fascinating installation did this by “recording participants’ personal stories and taking photographs of them interacting inside the booth.” (I assume “Create Change” to be a double entendre that also refers to the coin-operated laundry.) Live music was even performed by tango trio Mi, Miha & Me.

In addition to the movie above, Carlos also made one about the creation of the piece, and Hrag uploaded two videos (1, 2) shot at the event.

In retrospect, I wish I had attended, but at least there was one gay, Near Eastern person present enjoying and documenting the event: Hrag Vartanian, whose pictures adorn this article. Pictures and videos by Haci Richard are also online, but they seem to confirm my worst fears that it became an occasion for parents to dominate such a small space by stuffing so many children and strollers into it that childfree adults cannot enjoy themselves.

06 November 2009

• An article about Dr. Tina Strobos’ hiding Jews during World War II specifically noted the ethics of atheists. (The New York Times via J.K.G. on Facebook)

“It’s the right thing to do,” she said with nonchalance. “Your conscience tells you to do it. I believe in heroism, and when you’re young, you want to do dangerous things.” ¶But such an outlook has an origin, what Donna Cohen, the Holocaust Center’s executive director, calls “learned behavior.” Dr. Strobos comes from a family of socialist atheists who took in Belgian refugees during World War I and hid German and Austrian refugees before World War II.

11 October 2009

• The Yiddish word זעמל zeml (“roll”) is apparently of Semitic origin, as are the English words simnel and semolina, all being cognates with the Aramaic סמידא səmîdâ (presumably *ܣܡܝܕܐ in Syriac script) and Akkadiansamidu. [ב״ל via ב״ל via LH]

• Tuesday, 29 September, I ate the lunch buffet at Mehfil (महफ़िल محفل) (site, Y + Wp.) where I saw some of Masterji and an episode of Jugni chali Jalandhar (site, Wp., Fb.), both very silly.

• This photograph of the Jackson Heights Food Group was taken back in January by our server at Delhi Heights with my camera and posted online by me. (See Facebook.) Months later, the picture wound up on John’s Queens, NY, Blog incorrectly credited to the group founder, Jeff Orlick. Sorry, wrong Jew. (See also JT, JT and JHL.)

19 August 2009

I discovered DJ Prince (site, Fb., MS, YT) of Norway, first through his “anatomy” videos on YouTube that dissect and identify the samples used in dance recordings. See for example his video about “Groove Is in the Heart.”

I could only find four of the many sampled songs with Project Playlist, but nevertheless here they are:

He also has a page of music files, and the one I present here of course is one with South Asian music.

02 July 2009

MY POST on my own Facebook wall: Elyaqim was horrified to learn today of a trans-woman beaten in a bias attack a few blocks from his home. When we are still being bludgeoned in the streets, the top issues of the gay movement’s self-appointed leaders (e.g., marriage, children, military) seem less relevant. —1 July, 22:31 (SFBG, Fb.|FF)

The assault on Leslie Mora occurred 19 June in front of 72-11 Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, about three blocks from my building. As is my style, I present a bibliography below of the first articles about it I encountered online. As is also my style, I took it as an opportunity to rail against the highest-profile bourgeois gay organizations that might feel this brutal incident should take a back seat to the Gay Marriage Machine which seeks to ensure that same-sex partners will get benefits at the racquet club.

▴ Elyaqim thinks this Jewish birthday party got completely out of control, and is exhausted just having watched the video. —20 May, 17:56 (YT3, Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)

▴ I had not seen this cartoon in years. I love the way Bea Benaderet screams her head off. This must have been fun in the recording studio. —20 May, 22:36 (YT4, J.O. on Fb.)

✡ While I may not agree with every last point made, an interesting article about the marginalization of Mizraḥim in the absorption of Jewish immigrants to Israel. {Israeli Policies of Immigration and Immigrant Absorption: The Role of the Institutional System in the Social, Economic, and Cultural Integration of the Mizrahim, by Ksenia Polouektova.} —22 May, 11:31 (CEU5, Fb.|FF)

✴ Five words: “Marie’s creamy Italian garlic dressing.” —22 May, 13:34 (Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)• I was buying jar after jar of the blue cheese, but Met Food was out of it today, and I noticed the Italian garlic has only one gram of carbohydrates per serving. And green salads have so few Calories compared to almost any side dish or main dish that having a high-calorie dressing almost seems reasonable. —15:34

[After a friend commented on my pictures of architectural sculpture in Jackson Heights.]▴ If you mean the ones in front of the house on 72nd Street, I’m not sure. They could be flower bulbs, cabbages or even acorns. The ones in front of the building on 35th Avenue are gargoyles. —24 May, 21:14 (Fb.)

❖ If rendered in Katakana, the slogan of a theoretical airline, “The right way to fly,” would be identical to that of a theoretical cooking oil, “The light way to fry.” —26 May, 18:41 (Fb.|FF)

[After a friend commented on my picture of the Jackson Heights Food Group.]▴ We all decided to go out for dessert, but by the time we made it to Lety’s, there were only three of us (Karen, Rachel and I). One by one or two by two, everybody else…deserted us. —29 May, 11:18 (Fb.)

[After a friend commented on my link.]▴ There is certainly some rhetoric in that particular article, but not as much as your summary suggests. If you “have never read such hyperbole,” I suspect you’re immune to the outlandish hyperbole coming from the liberal/centrist homophile groups like LLDEF and HRC. Have you seen their gay marriage statements?! They conflate gay marriage with the very survival of our community and its interpersonal relationships. They state gay marriage is our ultimate issue to rationalize the obscene amounts of money being funneled into it when gays are still losing jobs, facing homelessness and drug addiction, and losing our lives. Hyperbole is not just the domain of the left and right. —29 May, 13:53 (LaGAI9, FF)▴ If it is symbolic and not actual, bourgeois gays need to be told what they’re doing wrong. If they are defining their politics so individualistically as to marginalize huge segments of their own community, they should not make a movement out of it, least of all not one filled with so many lies that are needed to make it smell good. —14:19

“Who writes this stuff?”

Elyaqim Mosheh Adam (a.k.a. Mark) is a gay Jewish–New Yorker who promotes his photography, videography and writing here, and who may be reasonably expected to write on any combination of the following:

{The old description: Still trying to strike a balance between a mere cataloging of my experiences, rarely done in a timely manner, and writings about subjects that interest me (linguistics, history etc.).}